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Apple Should Worry About Kindle And Nook Tablets More Than Xoom or Tab

As tablets goes, it's iPad. Don't let anyone kid you. Xoom isn't selling well and the Galaxy Tab might have a market in South Korea where Samsung is headquartered but that's it. Playbook? Yeah right. Not even on the market for a month and there's already a recall. However, Apple's tablet dominance could be coming to an end if Amazon and Barnes & Noble can get their tablet plans off the ground.

Amazon will soon unveil a new family of Kindle branded products I reckon there'll be new e-ink readers as well as Amazon's flavor of Android tablets. BN has done well with Nook Color and we'll see their second generation effort at the end of May. What makes these two ebook sellers different from the other hardware companies? And how can they succeed against Apple where other tablet makers have largely fail?

Well, the first evidence of this is this. Angry Birds have been downloaded 1 million times on just the Nook Color alone. And they got the app store not too long ago. And since the Nook Color gamed more tablet abilities, I've seen interest in the NC peaked.

On top of this, Amazon has its own Android app market that, in my mind, is better than the Android Marketplace. Why is that? It's more curated than Google's effort and less so than Apple's App Store. And I think BN will follow the same idea. Between the stores managed by Amazon or BN and Google's, I'll take the Kindle and Nook store any day.

And that's another thing. The Kindle and Nook app market will be smaller than the Google's app store but most users won't care about that. It's about feeling safe and, ironically, it could make it easier for users to find the apps they need.

Look for Amazon to leverage its music and video empire as well.

So yeah, I think Apple needs to worry about these two companies. Which is why I think both the Kindle and Nook apps will soon disappear from Apple's app store some time this year. Because later, both Amazon and BN will not only be Apple's ebook competitors but also tablet foes as well.